Interesting Facts About Mother's Day

Mother’s Day is not only a time to celebrate mums, it’s also steeped with tradition and amazingly fun facts. Show your mum how much you care by sharing with her some interesting facts she might not know about her special day. 

Without further ado, have a read of some Mother’s Day facts, from the history and traditions to some really out there customs from around the world, here are some of our favourites.

• Mother's Day isn't always on the same date each year. The holiday is celebrated every year on the second Sunday of May. This year, in case you’ve forgotten, will be on May 10th.
• The earliest Mother's Day celebrations can be traced back to the spring celebrations of ancient Greece in honour of Rhea, the Mother of the Gods.
• The first Mother's Day was celebrated in 1908. Anna Jarvis honoured her mother Ann Jarvis with a memorial. Ann Jarvis had started a committee to establish ‘Mother's Friendship Day', her motivation had been to reunite families after the Civil War. Anna wanted to carry out her mother’s wishes of having a day just for mums. She tirelessly campaigned and on May 8th, 1914 President Woodrow Wilson signed a Joint Resolution designating the second Sunday in May as Mother’s Day.
• In Australia, Mother’s Day is very much like the day Jarvis hoped to create in the US. However, here the gift-giving tradition of Mother’s Day is credited to Janet Hayden of Leichhardt, NSW, our very own special Mother’s Day guardian. In 1923, while at the hospital, she was struck by the number of patients who were lonely, ageing mothers, and campaigned for people to donate presents to them. She did this with the support of local school children and businesses who provided the gifts the children distributed.
• During the 1600’s in England, this day was celebrated, and it was named "Mothering Sunday", which still takes place on the 4th Sunday of Lent. It began with a prayer service in honour of the Virgin Mary. Afterwards children would present their mums with flowers. Servants would go home to see their families, bringing cakes and sweets to their mums.
• Today Mother's Day is celebrated in almost 50 countries around the world. It is celebrated on different days in the month of May and in some countries at entirely different times of the year with different traditions attached too. Like in Serbia, mums are tied up with rope or ribbon until they give sweets and gifts to their children - somewhat the opposite of our Mother’s Day.
• Surveys estimate that the most phone calls are made on Mother's Day than any other day of the year. This fact should be a reminder that on this day, your mum definitely expects to hear from you, and a text just won’t do.
• August is the most common month around the world for mothers to give birth to their children.
• The first thing a baby can vocalise is the 'ma' sound, which is why in almost every language the word for mother begins with the letter 'M' or is some iteration of the 'ma' sound. Mother is ‘Mère’ in French, ‘Mutter’ in German, ‘Madre’ in Italian, ‘Maa’ in Hindi and ‘Matka’ in Polish.
• Flowers have traditionally been a way of conveying feelings and letting the recipient know how important a role they play in the sender’s life. When it comes to playing an important role in an individual’s life, it's hard to top mum!
• According to the Sydney Morning Herald, Australians spent as much as $2 billion on Mother’s Day in 2017, with up to $200 million on flowers alone.
• The carnation is the flower most often associated with Mother's Day since Anna Reeves Jarvis used carnations on Mother's Day way back when to symbolise whether your mother was living. A red carnation meant she was, and a white meant she had passed.
• In Thailand, on this day parades in dedication to mother’s are held, and jasmine is the flower most commonly gifted to mums.
• Mother’s Day sees around one quarter of all flowers purchased throughout the year, around the world, even toppling Valentine’s!
• There is a great deal of research to show that giving a bouquet of flowers has many positive health and psychological benefits.

There you go! Did you learn a thing or two about Mother’s Day? If there’s one thing we’ve learnt, it’s that the buck stops with flowers on Mother’s Day. 

Make mums day extra special, whether you’re near or far, with Mother’s Day flowers from our 2020 Mother’s Day Flower Collection. For guaranteed Mother's Day flower delivery in Australia, please place your order before 10am AEST on Friday 8th May, 2020.

Don’t spoil the surprise, make sure you give her a ring as well! Which Mother’s Day flowers did you choose? Let us know on Facebook or take a photo of your beautiful bouquet and show us on Instagram using the hashtag #InterfloraAU and #AlwaysInterflora.